Spree

When I was younger, I was a big fan of Goosebumps books. It was a gift from the publishing world: as kids, we never have the chance to make our own decisions Now, with these choose-our-own ending books, we had the empowering opportunity to make decisions for others. Although the characters were purely fictional in a purely fictional situation, we dictated how the story would end. I admit that I was weary of the outcomes. Even as a seven year old with a limited vocabulary and the naivety that would make my mother proud, I saw through the disguise of trouble that lay ahead. Obviously he shouldn't crawl into that dark hole in the neighborhood abandoned house, what kind of person do you think I am? Yet, after making all the "safe" choices that ultimately led to the most desirable outcome, I went through each possible scenario, carefully navigating through the story and encountering the consequences or happy endings. 

In retrospect, I feel like a lot of choices I've made were chosen through this exact method. Sometimes the luxury of time does not exist and I am forced to quickly make a decision. At the first sign of uncertainty, I make the safe choice and move forward. Its only when I have bypassed the situation that I stop and consider the available options and therefore assess if I had made the right choice. Unfortunately, my foresight is not as keen as it was reading those books. 

I guess that's why I'm in the business school.

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On a side note: if it weren't for the extended periods of power outages as a result of typhoons hitting Guam and the island's poor infrastructure, I probably would have never read. So, by association, thank the poor management of the government for my success (or lack thereof).